Pryor Cashman joins our friends and family to celebrate and acknowledge the immense importance of the Juneteenth holiday in 2021. Americans across the nation and abroad gather to celebrate Juneteenth each year on June 19th in joy and remembrance of the end of slavery in the U.S. 

Despite many technicalities, the Emancipation Proclamation has long been noted as the formal end of slavery in the United States of America. Many formerly enslaved individuals and families across the southern states received news of the proclamation shortly thereafter. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, nearly two years before formal the end of the Civil War in April 1865. Those enslaved within Texas did not receive news of the proclamation until June 19, 1865. 

According to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission:

Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19, is the name given to Emancipation Day by African Americans in Texas. On that day in 1865 Union Major-General Gordon Granger read General Order No. 3 to the people of Galveston. It stated:

"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere."

Large celebrations on June 19 began in 1866 and continued regularly into the early 20th century. African Americans treated this day like the Fourth of July, and the celebrations contained similar events. In the early days, Juneteenth celebrations included a prayer service, speakers with inspirational messages, reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, stories from former slaves, food, red soda water, games, rodeos, and dances.

As mentioned above, large Juneteenth celebrations were first observed in 1866. According to The National Humanities Center, many enslaved Americans were not fully free until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in December 1865:

Although Lincoln had announced the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier, freedom did not come for most African Americans until Union victory in April 1865 and, officially, in December 1865 with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." - 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified December 1865

Millions across the United States still gather to observe Juneteenth celebrations today. The day represents a collective celebration and jubilee to mark the beginning of the end of a horrific chapter in United States history. 

Learn more about the observation of Juneteenth in the resource links below. 

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